So in FFXI I used a gamepad, enjoyed it. FFXIV I'm using a gamepad and I like it, but I'm quickly running out of buttons and targetting is not much fun. I don't like switching hotbar sets in the middle of battles either...

So does anyone have any advice on how to make the switch from Gamepad to keyboard and mouse? I'd love to see some of your HUDs that look nice with a kb+m set up.

And understand that you're going to suck for a little while as you re-learn things you're currently doing by muscle memory. The best way to do this is to sit at a training dummy and just run through your buttons for like half an hour until you relearn how to do things.

There are numerous guides on the Internet about moving from clicking and keyboard turning to mouse movement and keybinding. While that isn't exactly what you're doing, it's close, and they're a good place to start for learning how to use keyboard and mouse controls effectively.

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svlyons wrote:

If random outcomes aren't acceptable to you, then don't play with random people.

And understand that you're going to suck for a little while as you re-learn things you're currently doing by muscle memory. The best way to do this is to sit at a training dummy and just run through your buttons for like half an hour until you relearn how to do things.

There are numerous guides on the Internet about moving from clicking and keyboard turning to mouse movement and keybinding. While that isn't exactly what you're doing, it's close, and they're a good place to start for learning how to use keyboard and mouse controls effectively.

Thanks! I forgot about the training dummies!

And I've played with KB+M in other games...but the gamepad is comfy, just not practical...

To be honest, I doubt your transition will leave you feeling much better. The benefit of the mouse certainly enables for quicker/precise selection (assuming your target isn't surrounded by other things), but my consistent gripe with WASD is you don't really get comfortable access to more than 5 abilities unless you like contorting your thumb toward ctrl/alt to double/triple your potential. So if I'm remembering right, the cross-hotbar gives you access to 16 abilities at what's probably far greater comfort. It's at this point where I'd say I prefer XI's style of keyboard only over WASD, but the game's pacing probably wouldn't support that, nevermind likely similar targeting and interface issues.

Pragmatically, it might be good to consider what you really need on your bar. I am keyboard/mouse and I have a bar for potions, ethers, antidotes, and so on... but to be honest, I never or very rarely use them. Being BLM at the moment, there are also some abilities I very rarely use like Sure Cast, Convert, or Apothe-whatever. Given the number of ice/fire spells, I also feel this job might better played from the controller. But eh... I get by.

To be honest, I doubt your transition will leave you feeling much better. The benefit of the mouse certainly enables for quicker/precise selection (assuming your target isn't surrounded by other things), but my consistent gripe with WASD is you don't really get comfortable access to more than 5 abilities unless you like contorting your thumb toward ctrl/alt to double/triple your potential. So if I'm remembering right, the cross-hotbar gives you access to 16 abilities at what's probably far greater comfort. It's at this point where I'd say I prefer XI's style of keyboard only over WASD, but the game's pacing probably wouldn't support that, nevermind likely similar targeting and interface issues.

Pragmatically, it might be good to consider what you really need on your bar. I am keyboard/mouse and I have a bar for potions, ethers, antidotes, and so on... but to be honest, I never or very rarely use them. Being BLM at the moment, there are also some abilities I very rarely use like Sure Cast, Convert, or Apothe-whatever. Given the number of ice/fire spells, I also feel this job might better played from the controller. But eh... I get by.

You can also re-bind WASD to ESDF which opens your left hand up for more keybinds. That's a little more involved since you have to also rebind a bunch of system shortcut keys to make room, but don't forget the non-numeric keys that can also be used for keybindings.

Personally, I use one of these things

This gives me access to 72 practical keybinds for abilities and other functions as well as a d-pad all on my left hand. But this is by no means required to perform well with a keyboard/mouse combo.

____________________________

svlyons wrote:

If random outcomes aren't acceptable to you, then don't play with random people.

To be honest, I doubt your transition will leave you feeling much better. The benefit of the mouse certainly enables for quicker/precise selection (assuming your target isn't surrounded by other things), but my consistent gripe with WASD is you don't really get comfortable access to more than 5 abilities unless you like contorting your thumb toward ctrl/alt to double/triple your potential. So if I'm remembering right, the cross-hotbar gives you access to 16 abilities at what's probably far greater comfort. It's at this point where I'd say I prefer XI's style of keyboard only over WASD, but the game's pacing probably wouldn't support that, nevermind likely similar targeting and interface issues.

Pragmatically, it might be good to consider what you really need on your bar. I am keyboard/mouse and I have a bar for potions, ethers, antidotes, and so on... but to be honest, I never or very rarely use them. Being BLM at the moment, there are also some abilities I very rarely use like Sure Cast, Convert, or Apothe-whatever. Given the number of ice/fire spells, I also feel this job might better played from the controller. But eh... I get by.

You can also re-bind WASD to ESDF which opens your left hand up for more keybinds. That's a little more involved since you have to also rebind a bunch of system shortcut keys to make room, but don't forget the non-numeric keys that can also be used for keybindings.

Personally, I use one of these things [img=237592]

This gives me access to 72 practical keybinds for abilities and other functions as well as a d-pad all on my left hand. But this is by no means required to perform well with a keyboard/mouse combo.

That controller looks very complicated...how steep is the learning curve on something like that?

My main dislike with that is the hardware expense, just as some advocate dumping $60+ on a Razer, too. In my case specifically, I'd have nowhere to place that on my desktop, either. I have a tendency to prop my feet up and sit sideways by my desk with my wireless keyboard on my lap while reaching over to my desk for the mouse, also. So, eh... I can understand it being good, but at the same time I just hate how WASD control schemes are so lopsided toward the left hand, coincidentally the non-dominant hand for many.

My main dislike with that is the hardware expense, just as some advocate dumping $60+ on a Razer, too. In my case specifically, I'd have nowhere to place that on my desktop, either. I have a tendency to prop my feet up and sit sideways by my desk with my wireless keyboard on my lap while reaching over to my desk for the mouse, also. So, eh... I can understand it being good, but at the same time I just hate how WASD control schemes are so lopsided toward the left hand, coincidentally the non-dominant hand for many.

I definitely understand.

That thing was a gift, so I didn't have to care about what it cost.

The emphasis on left-hand actions is because your right hand is occupied with the mouse. It's something you get used to doing. You actually want your non-dominant hand doing this because the dominant hand has the harder task. Pointing with the mouse efficiently is a precision skill that requires far more dexterity than pushing buttons does. You want your strong hand doing that.

And before someone says it.. yes, I know you can still use a right-handed mouse while left-handed. You can learn to do all kinds of things when the world is built in direct opposition to you. I'm saying that having your dominant hand pointing while your off-hand pushes buttons is generally easier to learn and easier to execute.

I also sit sideways and prop my feet up.. very comfortable.. kinda hard on my chairs.

____________________________

svlyons wrote:

If random outcomes aren't acceptable to you, then don't play with random people.

Turn the camera with MOUSE ONLY and remember that keyboard turning is for the scrubs.

Will never understand this between a mix of skills auto-facing you here, a button to reverse view if need be, and probably even one to center view behind you if I bothered to look. Frankly, I have a bigger gripe with enclosed areas forcing my camera view into a smaller panorama, which can be a total pain on some bosses where you have to hug walls to avoid some mechanics.

This is probably not the most efficient, but I tend to only use the 1-6 keys in battle, and click the rest with my mouse as needed (they're not spells I cast on a regular basis). It'd probably be more annoying to do on a class with more burst potential, but it works on my SMN.

Just make sure to Keybind "Nearest enemy" where you can tap it easily next to your movement keys.

Keybinding left/right cycling through targets is a step up from that (when the next target you want is not the nearest.)

Personally I just zoom the camera way out and click directly on the target I want next. If you just cast a single AoE spell or ability on bunched up targets early in the encounter, then ALL of the enemies that get hit will appear on your Enemy List for easy click targeting. This includes THM/BLM AoE sleep.

Advanced Target Marking:I also have keybind for tagging enemies. I dragged the icon for Signs #1,#2 and #3 out from the Signs menu out on to my hotbar. Then associated 3 keybinds in a row for these signs. Under those, I have the keybind for "Cycle through enemies - Nearest to Furthest".

Sometime you have to take the time to number these in a specific way, like caster first. But not usually. It really helps the party to focus down single enemies this way. It tells everyone who the next target will be without waiting to see. It tells the Mage who can be put to Sleep.

Bonus: You can click on the Tag itself to target enemies. Which is great because they are floating up above the mess.

This is probably not the most efficient, but I tend to only use the 1-6 keys in battle, and click the rest with my mouse as needed (they're not spells I cast on a regular basis). It'd probably be more annoying to do on a class with more burst potential, but it works on my SMN.

With A and D unbinded I usually put the most used abilities to A and D and others to shift+A, shift+D, shift+Q/W/E/R/S/F/G/Z/X/C/V, I tend to be careful what I bind to shift+Q/E/W/S (strafe left/right and move forward/back) making sure it is stuff I generally don't use when movement is important.

I usually have redundancy with 1-0 up top but I rarely use them except 3 and 4, e.g. copy the 1 ability to A, the 2 ability to D, leave 3 and 4, copy 5 to shift+A and 6 to Shift+D, etc.

I rest my pinky on shift, that way I never have to move my hand from AWSD and can access a plethora of abilities.

I'm a dork and remapped all my keybindings from the standard WASD over to the FFXI's numpad configuration. I'm just so used to it at this point.

Me too. I tap Enter with my thumb for "Target Nearest Enemy".

Because of this, I had to remap "chat bar" to the Spacebar.

I'm not sure if anyone plays with "Direct Chat" enabled. I know some controller users do. This can be turned off in Keybind menu, very top of the menu. Then you can keybind a ton of other thing to the alpha numeric keys.

The Main Tank is an idea familiar with everyone in the MMO community but for some reason articulating the Main Assist idea to a group is like speaking Latin to the MMO community. Most conflate it with the MT and just assume that w/e the MT is targeting they need to target even though it is rarely the case.

To be honest, I doubt your transition will leave you feeling much better. The benefit of the mouse certainly enables for quicker/precise selection (assuming your target isn't surrounded by other things), but my consistent gripe with WASD is you don't really get comfortable access to more than 5 abilities unless you like contorting your thumb toward ctrl/alt to double/triple your potential. So if I'm remembering right, the cross-hotbar gives you access to 16 abilities at what's probably far greater comfort. It's at this point where I'd say I prefer XI's style of keyboard only over WASD, but the game's pacing probably wouldn't support that, nevermind likely similar targeting and interface issues.

Pragmatically, it might be good to consider what you really need on your bar. I am keyboard/mouse and I have a bar for potions, ethers, antidotes, and so on... but to be honest, I never or very rarely use them. Being BLM at the moment, there are also some abilities I very rarely use like Sure Cast, Convert, or Apothe-whatever. Given the number of ice/fire spells, I also feel this job might better played from the controller. But eh... I get by.

You can also re-bind WASD to ESDF which opens your left hand up for more keybinds. That's a little more involved since you have to also rebind a bunch of system shortcut keys to make room, but don't forget the non-numeric keys that can also be used for keybindings.

Personally, I use one of these things

This gives me access to 72 practical keybinds for abilities and other functions as well as a d-pad all on my left hand. But this is by no means required to perform well with a keyboard/mouse combo.

That looks interesting. So you use the thumbstick to move and your mouse to control you camera? If that's how it works that may work for me. I've only XI and XIV played using a controller so my brain is already wired to use stick with my left thumb to move.

That looks interesting. So you use the thumbstick to move and your mouse to control you camera? If that's how it works that may work for me. I've only XI and XIV played using a controller so my brain is already wired to use stick with my left thumb to move.

I use the d-pad for forward movement and strafing, control the camera with the mouse (forward movement on the mouse too.. just depends on the situation).

In WoW I also used the d-pad for extra keybindings (shift-up shift-down, etc) for changing stances or druid forms or whatever.

____________________________

svlyons wrote:

If random outcomes aren't acceptable to you, then don't play with random people.

That looks interesting. So you use the thumbstick to move and your mouse to control you camera? If that's how it works that may work for me. I've only XI and XIV played using a controller so my brain is already wired to use stick with my left thumb to move.

I use the d-pad for forward movement and strafing, control the camera with the mouse (forward movement on the mouse too.. just depends on the situation).

In WoW I also used the d-pad for extra keybindings (shift-up shift-down, etc) for changing stances or druid forms or whatever.

So you don't use it for backward movement? Just curious, with a controller I can just pull back on the stick to get out of AoE range etc.